NEW cat c-series skid-steer and multi terrain loader

I would have gone with the Takeuchi too, but their cab height was almost 6 inches taller than the standard 78" height that I required and no matter what type of track you use, they were very rough riding, but they are a true tank, the very first "ground up" CTL ever made.

oh without a doubt probably the hardest riding track machine, but like you said its a tank.

here are a few pic of some C Series Cat skid steers, and a 236B series 2

Reminds me of the day I bought my Cat.

The C series is looking to be a great machine here in Denmark. We have gotten only good feedback and serviceabilty is much than the B series.

Ohh by the way. I am new to this forum.

I am a Caterpillar shop service technician for Pon Equipment Denmark (The danish Caterpillar dealer.

Finally found your way here!

Yep. Now I am just waiting to get allowed to post my own threads

Hi, just signed up, great hearing all the comments. Have done 5000 hrs on 247B's, 2000hrs on 277b ( still on original tracks ) boss made me operate the 277c ( under protest ) for 40 hrs. Absolutely hate the "C" gave it to the new guy and kept the old B. Have seen photos of the new undercarriage system for the 278c

danish cat tech said:

Ohh by the way. I am new to this forum.

I am a Caterpillar shop service technician for Pon Equipment Denmark (The danish Caterpillar dealer.

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welcome to HEF

joe901 said:

Hi, just signed up, great hearing all the comments. Have done 5000 hrs on 247B's, 2000hrs on 277b ( still on original tracks ) boss made me operate the 277c ( under protest ) for 40 hrs. Absolutely hate the "C" gave it to the new guy and kept the old B. Have seen photos of the new undercarriage system for the 278c

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I agree with you the new track systems are nothing compared to the old 267 and 277 style. They could almost walk on water and gave a level of suspension that no other machine could ever give. None of the new Cats or ASVs have as good of flotation or smooth ride like the older models did.

Anyone seen the new Deere SkidSteer Smackdown page?

i just wanted to complain about the 277c i got approx 1 year ago. It has been nothing but problems from day one. within 20 hours the rubber was gone on the front and rear bogies and the rest were getting chunked badly. they said it was a defective rubber compound. they replaced them and gave me steel bogies, which work fine other than the fact that they destroy the inside of the track where they ride. [which i found out later] from then it worked fine for approx 600 hrs with little problems. then the front lift cylinders went bad. since then there is a system error light that seems to go off about 1 time per month or so requiring me to take it in and have them reflash the computer[they say now that the wiring harness needs replaced]. so now it is in the shop for the harness and to replace the tracks that have warn out from the inside out[a whole strip of lugs ripped out in one piece!] the outside rubber is in exelent shape oddly enough. we'll see if it gets covered under warrenty. for the record it now has 1450 hrs I am the only one operating it and take very good care of my equipment also it is used only for light residential grading. I do like the design of the machine,and the cab is very comfortable but they have alot issues to work out. or mabey i just got a lemon.....

also have to say that being an owner operator this machine has costed me a great deal of lost time and money.

MHgrading said:

also have to say that being an owner operator this machine has costed me a great deal of lost time and money.

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Are they standing behind the machine or are you footing the bill?

I demoed a 256C and came away unimpressed. The cab is much nicer than my older CASE machines, but when it came time to move material it does not compare. I found the E/H to have a mind of its own. This machine did not have AMICS so I tried to be objective. I was expecting much more from this C series than what CAT delivered.

ksss
i got a 3000 hr warrenty with it so they pd for everything so far but i dont know what they are going to do about the track, i told people at the shop about the wear on the undersides of the tracks before it broke and the guy told me that "with the steel rollers i would loose some life on the tracks" what a joke, rollers are cheap compared to the tracks.
also yes the new E/H is a disappointment it took me a long time to get use to it, in fact when i first got it i wanted to take it back for that reason alone but i liked the cab too much. plus my salesman kept telling me for so long how great this new model was supposed to be.

the c series controls are terrible, the only way it is tollerable is with the hydraulic flow on level 3 and full throttle at all times. they are designing these for people who dont know how to run them. it is not a finnesse machine any more.

MHgrading said:

the c series controls are terrible, the only way it is tollerable is with the hydraulic flow on level 3 and full throttle at all times. they are designing these for people who dont know how to run them. it is not a finnesse machine any more.

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I made nearly the same remark in reference to my demo machine. The machine seemed to be programmed to accomplished a preset amount of work and not one bit more. I am used to being able to really push a machine to its mech. limits. You wont do that with these CATs. On paper the 256C looked very good. I actually thought it would out produce my 440 which I was comparing it to. On paper it has slightly more gross hp and more lift, it seemed a better match to a CASE 450. I was really looking forward to running this machine, if it performed like a CASE 450 only lighter, I was interested. Unfortunately the machine would not lift a bucket out out of a pile of pit run. You had to back the machine out of the pile before it would lift. The CAT machines are low torque producing machines, and you could tell especially in available wheel torque (CAT makes about 217 foot pounds, Deere is about 250 foot pounds, and CASE is 288). If not for the destroking pump it would be much worse than it is. The one bright spot (besides the comfort of the cab) was that the bucket breakout was good, but again the short lipped bucket may have had a lot to do with that. We had one on a good sized dirt job this Spring. I left the job came back at the end of the day and noticed the CAT was parked. I was alittle miffed as its a free machine to use and why not use it. My lead guy said I parked it because I needed to get something done. I couldn't argue the point.

MHgrading said:

also have to say that being an owner operator this machine has costed me a great deal of lost time and money.

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I feel your pain...

I'm dissapointed nobodys talking about the NEW 279 289 and the 299. Already demoed the 279 and I love it! Undercarriage is completely different and not ASV.